


30 days of joshler

by shroudedfuse (orphan_account)



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Fluff, M/M, i'm a sinner, prolly smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-13
Updated: 2016-03-13
Packaged: 2018-05-26 10:25:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6234934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/shroudedfuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a list of 30 prompts. one ficlet per day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Tyler isn’t gay.

He walks into school on a Friday, bright grin on his face as he high-fives a friend and heads to his locker. He can hear the cheerleaders giggling and thinks it ought to boost his ego, make him feel good about himself. There’s one girl on the cheer squad his mom loves, maybe if he asks her out she’d-

Before he can plan further, a sudden force knocks into him, sending him rocking backward, arms flailing to catch himself against the wall. His mouth parts open to comment on the intrusion, now that his journal is on the floor (and sprawled everywhere, all of his poems out there in the world before he was ready for them to be, visible and able to be criticized by the unforgiving teenage crowd he tries desperately to fit into and feel welcome in), but once his eyes lift from the floor they meet wide brown eyes and frizzy blue hair and he instantly forgets what he was about to say.

“Sorry,” the boy mumbles. His eyes drop, flicker around the hall as other students glance their way awkwardly, his hands fidget at his sides and in front of his chest. He looks terrified, the poor guy, so Tyler forces himself up and shakes his head- both to reassure the boy and himself.

“It’s fine.” 

The boy looks up again, and when their eyes meet again, Tyler has to forcibly push air in and out of his lungs in order to not pass out and fall onto the floor. The boy smiles at him a little bit and starts shuffling away before Tyler can say anything, and a part of him wants to reach out and find out his name, why he’s never seen him around before, what grade he’s in, if they could hang out sometime, but the head of fluffy blue hair disappears around the corner, and it’s too late.

Tyler sighs a little, readjusting his backpack on his shoulder and trudging down the hall once more. There in the distance, he can see the circle of cheerleaders again, and the girl his mom likes- though he can’t seem to remember her name anymore- turns her head to smile at him shyly. He offers her a little wave, but it’s forced, and he turns toward his locker quickly, eager to distract himself with routine actions, and not think about fluffy blue hair boy.

“Hey, uh… wait!”

Tyler jumps a little as he turns around, and his eyes widen at the sight of the blue haired boy in front of him again. This time, he’s shifting on his feet apologetically as he holds out a journal. His journal. The one he was so goddamn worried about.

“You dropped this,” he mumbles, and Tyler nods. It takes him a moment of processing, but he does eventually take the journal back.

“Thanks.” Again, the blue haired boy starts to make his escape, but this time, he goes for it. “Hey, uh… I’m Tyler.”

The boy smiles a little and nods, digging his hands into his back pockets. “I know. I’m Josh.”

Tyler sighs a little. _Josh_. The boy with the pretty candy colored hair and doe eyes and cute smile has a name, and it’s Josh. “Well, uh… thanks, Josh.” 

There’s a tangible awkward pause between them, and Tyler isn’t sure how to break it, so he rocks back onto his heels a few times, fidgeting as he scrambles for words. The boy- _Josh_ \- beats him to it. “Hey, aren’t you in my math class?”

Tyler blinks his eyes wide. “I think I would’ve noticed a guy with bright blue hair.”

“I just dyed it,” Josh laughs. Tyler feels his heart physically skip a few beats at the sound. Apparently that wasn’t just an artistic cliche people used. He’d have to write it down. “Third hour, with Frasier, right?”

Tyler’s jaw nearly drops. “Yeah,” he answers dumbly. Bless the administrators that put him in the same class as this beautiful boy. 

Then again, there’s a pretty fair chance he’s completely scared the guy off with his googly eyes and dopey smile. He isn’t gay. He likes girls. He’s _sure_ of it.

“Cool,” Josh finally blurts out, and Tyler can see the cogs turning in his head immediately after- he’s felt his thoughts yelling at how _stupid_ he’s acting their entire interaction, too. “I’ll, uh, see you then.”

“Yeah,” he repeats and nods a few times too many. “See you then, Josh.”

He likes how Josh’s name rolls off his tongue. But he isn’t gay, though. 

Josh starts to retreat back down the hall, and Tyler watches him go a little too long. He catches himself, and immediately turns back toward his locker, eyes dropping to his journal. It’s open to a blank page toward the back- blank, except for a corner of adorable chicken scratch that definitely isn’t his that contains a number and a scribbled, “ _we should hang out sometime- Josh._ ”

He might be a little gay.


	2. Chapter 2

It all happened too fast, far too fast, before Tyler could really grasp the situation and figure out how to feel about it. One moment they’d been in Josh’s living room with their friends, laughing and talking about everything and nothing, playing video games and eating pizza and drinking cheap, horrible beer. The next, he found himself pinned against the wall next to the upstairs bathroom, grasping at broad shoulders and pushing a warm body closer, a warm person that was attacking his lips with a greedy fervor that set every inch of Tyler ablaze. 

A warm person that was also Josh. His best friend, Josh. 

He couldn’t tell you how it happened.

A voice in his mind screamed at him to push Josh away, to end this before it ruined their friendship and he lost him forever, but the harder Josh kissed him and the more he _fucking liked it_ , the smaller and weaker that voice became. He felt warm hands slide up and down his sides, calloused fingers slip beneath his shirt and grip his skin, making him shudder and grip Josh’s bright hair tighter, push his face closer, as close as possible. It wasn’t enough. He wanted more.

Footsteps coming up the stairs jolted Tyler from his hazy thoughts, and before he could push Josh away the drummer was stumbling backward of his own accord, bumping back against the bathroom door and darting his wide eyes around, looking everywhere except Tyler’s way. He knew they both looked wrecked, if Josh’s kiss-swollen lips and tousled hair was any indication. They were fucked.

“Josh, you doing okay?”

Without a second glance, or a word, or even a hint of a thought of what he was doing, Tyler ran.

He could distantly hear Mark ask what was wrong, could hear his footsteps thundering down the stairs and Josh’s worried squeak of his name that made his heart clench and his gut twist in the worst way, but he couldn’t stop. Not now. His legs were already propelling him downstairs, and before he knew where he wanted to go he was hooking a right and bolting straight out the front door. 

He couldn’t go back in. He couldn’t face Josh, not now. He could barely face himself. What had he _done_?

As soon as his feet hit the sidewalk, he froze. His eyes lifted as he turned back to the house. The door had swung shut behind him, and there was no hint of anyone following him. The voice in his head from before had turned bitter, and spat at him about how pathetic he was, thinking that it mattered. To Josh. That the kiss mattered. That he mattered.

Without thinking, Tyler plopped himself into the grass of the front yard, and just sat there, cross-legged, staring out at the empty street. His entire body felt weak, useless, he couldn’t take another step if he wanted to, and besides, there wasn’t enough traffic in the quiet neighborhood to bother stepping into the street. The bitter half of his mind rebuked him for the thought, and soon enough a familiar war sparked in his mind’s eye. Tyler just shut his eyes and tried to breathe. It took effort.

“Tyler?”

The screen door behind him clicked shut, and immediately Tyler scrambled to his feet, the voices in his head temporarily hushed as he spun around. 

It was Josh.

Tyler swallowed harshly, gasping a little at how dry his throat had become. Was he that close to tears already? “Sorry. Sorry, I’m… gotta go. Sorry.”

“Wait, no, don’t-”

But Tyler’s legs were moving again, though his brain screamed to just listen to Josh, to not piss him off more than he probably already was, that maybe he could salvage their friendship somehow and he could forget the most magical and wonderful kiss he’d ever had, but his body didn’t listen, and he was bolting down the street. He had no idea where he was going, his own house was in the other direction, he just had to go. Somewhere, anywhere, away. He had to leave.

“Tyler, wait!”

But he couldn’t. He couldn’t stop, he didn’t know how. His legs kept moving. He was really crying now, real tears spilling down his burning face as he sprinted as fast as he could. He could hear thundering footsteps on the sidewalk behind him and panic crept into his chest. Fuck. He tried to push harder, run faster, but it was useless. The tears choked his breath, and he doubled over, gasping frantically for air as he fell to his knees on the sidewalk, a red faced, teary eyed mess. 

The footsteps slowed to a stop just behind him, and Tyler didn’t bother fighting it when he felt Josh wrap his arms around his shaking shoulders, or when Josh pulled him into a tight hug. “Tyler,” he whispered, shaking his head a little as he smoothed his hand down Tyler’s back, leaving a trail of pleasant warmth. He hadn’t realized how cold it was outside. “Why are you running away?”

Tyler scoffed, a soft, choked noise through his crying, though now in the safety of Josh’s arms he could feel it dying down. “M’sorry,” he muttered. His head landed in the crook of Josh’s neck. Crying was exhausting. 

A moment of quiet passed over them, but when it was over he felt Josh settle down criss-cross on the sidewalk, and felt Josh pull him into his lap, keeping a firm grip on him. He didn’t bother fighting it, not that he really wanted to. “I’m sorry if I freaked you out,” Josh murmured, voice hushed, careful. “I mean… I didn’t mean to, if you didn’t want… I, uh, understand if you don’t… if you need me to back off, I’m sorry-”

Tyler shook his head into Josh’s neck as the poor guy rambled on. With what little energy he had left he lifted his head, arms resting on Josh’s shoulders to support himself. “I thought you were gonna be freaked out,” he croaked out. 

At that, Josh just laughed, a soft, melancholy sound breaking the soft quiet between them. “Ty, _I_ kissed _you_.”

“So?”

“I don’t think I would’ve kissed you if I was gonna be freaked out.”

Tyler shook his head, fighting the urge to crack a smile- and ultimately losing. “Whatever.” 

The silence that settled over them then was more comfortable, more relaxed. Tyler let his head fall back down onto Josh’s shoulder, and for that moment he just sat there and watched Josh’s chest rise and fall with each breath, focused on his every movement. It should’ve worried him how free he felt around the boy, but right now, he was too spent to care. 

“I’m sorry I freaked you out,” Josh finally whispered, and turned his head to nuzzle his nose into Tyler’s hair. “It won’t happen again, okay?”

Tyler couldn’t help but pout a little at that. “No.”

A pause. “No, what?”

He lifted his head again, a very determined look on his tired face as he looked directly into Josh’s eyes- which was terrifying on its own, but he wasn’t about to back down now- and spoke. “I don’t want it to not happen again.”

He watched Josh’s expression as the thoughts flew around his head, as realization slowly dawned on him, and a smile crept onto his still bruised from feverish kissing lips. “Yeah?” he breathed out. Tyler couldn’t help but grin.

“Yeah.”

This time, when Josh leaned in and their lips met, Tyler instantly sighed and melted into it. It was soft and lazy, and they were still sitting on the sidewalk a few houses down from Josh’s house, but between Josh’s familiar embrace and his soft lips that were _very_ good at kissing, Tyler couldn’t find it in himself to care. 


End file.
